Earth 16
by OilWar
Summary: Danny ends up in another universe after the Nasty Burger explodes. Will he be the hero he was meant to be?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Young Justice.

* * *

He had begged.

Pleaded.

Cried.

And yet Clockwork remained firm, his hands tied by the Observants behind him. His family, his friends, his town could not be saved.

Dan, his evil twin, had been locked away and Clockwork assured him that in time the being would fade from existence. The timeline had been changed. He had won, but at what cost? It felt as if he had lost.

Time, space, reality. Numbness, pain, eternity.

Maddie, Jack, Jasmine. Tucker, Sam, Valerie.

Death, destruction, bitterness.

Why?

And then Clockwork made an offer he couldn't refuse. A chance to leave and start over. Not by turning back the clock, or dropping him through a portal into another country halfway across the globe, but by sending him to a new dimension.

Earth 16

Danny had his doubts. But Clockwork was insistent. When Daniel finally got down to the logistics of the deal all Clockwork said was not to worry about an identity in this new world, as it would be easy to take one, if he acted quickly. Whatever that meant. All he needed to worry about was money.

And so, Danny gathered what he could from the rubble quickly, tears staining his face, his hands growing raw and burnt from the hot ashes of destruction. He was too numb to care. He managed to steal four or five neatly bundled stacks of hundred dollar bills from the half destroyed Nasty Burger safe and kept digging through trying to grab something, anything to remember them by. But the money was all he could snatch before he was whisked away. Clockwork needed to act quickly, before the Observants caught on.

He still had his phone in his pocket. He still had some pictures. At least.

* * *

When the swirling green portal spat him out he found himself in a dingy alley that reeked of garbage and piss. Old brick walls on one side and a rusty chain link fence on the other. He looked up at the buildings only to see boarded over windows. Sirens could be heard in the distance. It was dark and yet he could still clearly make out a fat rat scurrying by from out behind a dumpster.

And then it happened.

He jumped out of the way and hid as an old beat up red car came screeching into the alley, barrelling at what must have been sixty an hour, then subconsciously found himself invisible as four thugs stepped out of the car and opened up the trunk. They spoke jovially, one of them holding a large baseball bat behind their back.

"I swear I thought I saw a kid out here"

"Your eyes must be foolin' now hurry up, we gotta get rid of this for the Joker"

"Can't I smoke a little first"

"No idiot"

They pulled out a body. A freaking bloody body. A corpse of a young man by the looks of it. The body was tightly bound with rope and gagged with a blue bandana and had what appeared to be a bullet hole through his chest. Red blood caked onto a white shirt. His skin was greyish. Danny watched horror stricken unsure of what to do. Was 911 the same in this universe? Would his cell phone work here?

And then they jumped back into the car and sped off.

He let his invisibility drop and released the breath he didn't realize he was holding. He was literally shaking from so much adrenaline flooding his system.

The car was red. Four doors. Large dent on the left hand side. The thugs were six foot tall. They must have weighed two hundred pounds each. There were four of them. One of them had on a bright orange shirt. He tried to keep the details straight in his head. He was a witness now right?

Why had clockwork dropped him off here and now of all places? Fuck, what the hell was he supposed to do? He fiddled with his phone, his heart racing a thousand miles a minute, only to find that he might as well have been carrying a brick around. Damn it. He had no clue why he was here of all places.

Oh.

"It will be easy to take a new identity if you act quickly" Clockwork had said.

Sick.

He didn't know what else to do though. It's not like he had a birth certificate in this universe.

He looked around for cameras then transformed into Phantom. It was much easier to use his powers that way. He then phased through the dumpster until he was by the corpse, and looked through the dead man's pockets for his wallet. Hopefully he had one on him. He felt like a real slimebag stealing from the dead. Finally he found one in the boy's back pocket, a black leather one. Danny then transformed back and made his way out of the dingy alley and onto a dingy street full of bars and strung out hookers.

Great. He sure felt safe with a couple thousand in his pockets, a dead man's wallet, a useless cell phone, druggies around every corner, and not knowing where the fuck he was at all.

He walked aimlessly before he found a convenience store, the only thing open that wasn't a bar. He grabbed a bag of chips, and upon noticing a copy of "The Gotham Times" decided to purchase that. The total coming to just a little under three bucks, he cursed under his breath. That was so not worth pulling out a wad of hundreds for. He fumbled a bit, then opened up the wallet. Luckily there was a twenty stashed inside. He used it, relieved to note that money was exactly the same here.

He stood just inside the door for a bit, looking through the contents of the wallet. He noted a social security card, an ID card, a bus pass of some kind, and some kind of store rewards card. He took a longer look at the ID frowning.

His new identity was Daniel J. Miller. He had white skin, black hair and blue eyes. He was 5 foot six inches and weighed 120 pounds. The deceased was fifteen years old, if the date of the Times was accurate.

Clockwork knew what he was doing, that's for sure. The description matched him almost to a T.


	2. Chapter 2

Notice: I don't own Danny Phantom or Young Justice.

* * *

Danny's first few days on Earth 16, as Clockwork had called it, were anything but smooth. He spent his first night underneath an overpass where he noticed a group of other street kids sleeping, but he was annoyingly awoken nearly every hour by someone bumming for change or a cigarette. The next night he tucked himself away under a storefront awning, hiding as best he could- until the owner angrily shoved him away with a broom the following morning all the while threatening to call the cops on him for being a loiterer and a vagabond. But that was a good night compared to the following night at the park where he nearly got mugged by a crazed old man with a crowbar who must have been a meth head or something; waking up to a rather large bruise as the man took a swing at his chest. That hurt a lot, but the man had sure left in a hurry when he fired a low level ectoblast at him. Apparently it confirmed that he was a "demon" and a "spawn from hell". Deciding that sleeping where the rest of the homeless folks slept was a bad idea, especially sense he was a walking bank account, Danny then chose his current hide out- a boarded up shop that could only be entered by phasing through the building. The place was damp, full of mildew and roaches. The roof leaked in some spots, but not bad. It had obviously been some kind of restaurant before, but that must've been like a decade ago. There was no running water or power here, which sucked, but at least there was less threat of being stabbed by some random drunkard. He had spent three nights here, trying to get his bearings.

The halfa was currently munching down on a gas station burrito, sitting on an overturned rusty bucket, reading a newspaper. He held a red pen he had found earlier in his hands, scrutinizing the classifieds and underlying all the places he could feasibly rent. He couldn't live in any of the apartment complexes on his own because they would obviously want proof he was whatever the age of majority was and a credit check to put him on a lease. Even so, there seemed to be a fair number of rooms being let out, especially up by the University. Everyone was looking for roommates over there. The great thing about this universe, Danny had decided, was that there weren't any ghosts wreaking havoc and there were already heros everywhere dealing with everything else. He could live a normal life. Well, as normal as life could be for a fifteen year old homeless half dead kid from a different universe.

He had already underlined three places with rent under five hundred a month. Doable. He had found out that minimum wage around here was nine bucks an hour while skimming through the jobs section.

The papers he had purchased had taught him a good amount about the city he was dropped off in. It was a major city, unlike Amity, and seemed to have boroughs and districts similar to what he understood of New York. Like any city there were the good, the bad, and the downright ugly parts of town. Most of the headlines were either about "The Batman," some hero who dressed up as a rodent, or poverty, or the city's drug problems, or crime. Sometimes an article would pop up about rich folks donating pittly sums, compared to the vast wealth they possessed, to charities. The usual attention grabbers. The good news today, if one could call it that, was that the newspaper had turned up a paragraph about the discovery of his new identity's body. Apparently the boy's hands had been burned with acid which meant the cops couldn't get any prints, and most of the victims teeth had been knocked out as well. The corpse did have a gang tatoo however, and the cops used that information along with his general body build to pin the victim as "Kyle Reed" a local street rat who had gone missing almost a year prior and had an extensive criminal record for his age. Apparently the cops weren't going to look very hard into the identities of dead criminals in this city. That or the body really was Kyle and the dude had a fake ID.

Clockwork probably knew that no one would really look to hard into things.

There seemed to be a new mass murder, prison break, kidnapping, or other violent attack in this town every other day. The obituary was full of people who died being mugged, were killed in drug deals gone wrong, or were outright murdered by psychopaths. Gotham was a hotbed for crime and corruption, and it seemed the town's hero, Batman couldn't keep up. Not that Danny was going to get involved. Well, actually, it wasn't like he was going to go out of his way to get involved. He wasn't so cruel as to just sit back and let shit happen right in front of him.

With his list of potential new homes drawn up Danny stood, folded the page he needed, and placed it into his jean pockets. He transformed just long enough to phase through the building's exterior wall and into the alley behind it, then transformed back and headed over toward the bus station he had found the other night. There was a seldom used payphone there. He still hadn't gotten himself a new cellphone. He wasn't sure where the hell he could buy one, and didn't really have any friends to text anyway.

The first number he called took him straight to a voicemail machine. A waste of quarters. The second number he called was picked up by a raspy voiced woman that he could already tell he would never want to be roommates with. She talked his ears off about what he wouldn't be allowed to do. No eating on the couch. No leaving the toilet seat up. No turning the thermostat up or down. No girlfriends or other guests without at least 48 hours advanced notice. The list went on and on and of course she'd want to run a background check because "one could never be too careful in Gotham". The phone cut off, thank God, because he stopped feeding it change. The last number he called was picked up by Steve. His new roommate's name was Steve. He was 19 years old, studying computer science at Gotham University, and his only concern was that Daniel be okay with pot being smoked in the apartment and paid his share of the rent on time every month. It was a done deal.

As Steve had said, Danny seemed like "a chill dude", and Danny figured Steve wasn't the type to pry into his life. A win-win situation.

The halfa hung the phone up and went back to his hideout to grab what little stuff he had- chiefly a few newspapers, a pocket knife, and a flashlight- then caught the bus that a helpful stranger, who was waiting on her own bus, said went toward the Burnley District where Gotham U, and his new home, was located.

He could do this. He was actually doing this.

* * *

Getting his life in order took less time than he thought it would. He got off the bus that day clutching a copy of a map found inside the metro pamphlet, and found the apartment without much problem. It was a three story brick building with no elevator, and his apartment would be on the third floor- which meant he'd have to climb the rickety metal steps each day to reach it, unless he flew. The building was old and a bit dingy, nothing like the new shiny dorms around campus he had just passed by on the bus, but there didn't seem to be any roach or rodent problems at least.

His new roommate, Steve, was a no nonsense kind of dude. Danny had slipped his first month's rent, four hundred bucks, out of his pocket and into the guy's hands and that's all it took to make his new roommate happy. Apparently rent was due in a week and Steve had had no clue as to how he was going to pay it before Danny called. Steve was a tall lanky fellow with curly red hair, thick rimmed glasses, and freckles. He told Danny not to expect to see him that often because he would either be locked in his room with piles of homework, or working at his paid internship at some tech company that Danny had already forgotten the name of. There was a lot to memorize about this new world, and his brain was having a hard time keeping up.

His new room was small, and had nothing in it when he arrived. The thinning gray carpet had a few stains but it was otherwise clean. His window faced an alley, was a bit drafty, and the curtain provided by the landlord had a small tear in it. It wasn't the Taj Mahal but it was affordable at least, and not in the middle of Crime Alley. He could work with it. He still had a fair amount of cash.

A few days later, when Steve had the time and his "piece of crap" car wasn't acting up, they went down to a Big Box Store on the outskirts of the city. Danny was elated to have a real bed to sleep on and not the lumpy old couch in the living room, plus a cellphone, clothing, and a toothbrush among other necessities. Steve had lent him a few shirts and a pair of sweats after figuring out that Daniel had absolutely nothing, but it was nice to be able to wear fresh clean boxers and stuff of his own. He was going to pick up an application there but Steve said not to bother because the bus lines didn't go that far.

In the end he picked up a few applications to the numerous restaurants that surrounded the College, carefully avoiding the burger joints. He didn't think he'd ever be able to eat burgers again. Not after, well…. He had been avoiding thinking about it. It was easier that way. It took a week to find work. A small pizzeria that was hiring gave him a dishwashing job on the spot. Because of his age he had to forge a few names on a few documents, including numerous parent signatures and a few school admin signatures. Not like his job was going to investigate whether any of the names he listed were real people. The owners seemed a bit shady and off. They probably had connections to the mob or something. No, the only annoyance was that, because of state law, he was only allowed to work twenty hours a week. Apparently he was supposed to be in class most of the day.

Danny didn't really want to go to school. It all seemed pointless now.

He just needed to scrape up enough money to get by, and his current job seemed to have that covered. He figured his take home pay, after taxes would be somewhere around six hundred a month. Four hundred for his share of rent, a hundred for food sense he was allowed to eat as much as he wanted while at work, thirty to keep his phone on, and forty for the youth bus pass. No problem. He didn't particularly feel like he needed to read Macbeth or memorize the capitals of all the States or know the Quadratic Formula by heart to survive. Dishes weren't that hard to scrub. Pizzas weren't that hard to make.

Steve recommended that he get himself a GED, stating that the test would only cost a little over a hundred dollars and that the library and even some church's offered free classes and books to help study for it. And with a GED he could "even go to Gotham Tech and learn a skilled trade". In some ways Steve was worse than his sister had been in the overly helpful department. As soon as he figured out that Danny had just come off the streets he kept bringing home flyers with various programs. Of course, Steve assumed he was eighteen years old and had dropped out. It's not like he knew that Danny was only fifteen, wasn't technically old enough to drop out, and probably couldn't legally take the GED test yet. Well probably not, he wasn't sure. Plus he had no school records, that he could access anyway, in this universe. He didn't know where this Miller fellow had gone to school,or even if he had gone to school before. Considering the gang tattoo, if that was even a real thing, he probably hadn't. Even if Danny wanted to sign up for high school it would look strange coming in with absolutely zero records of having ever attended school at all ever. They'd probably cram him back into ninth grade.

He wasn't redoing freshman and sophomore year. He didn't want to take algebra one, or geometry, or US History again.

And if the administrators did manage to dig up any of Miller's old school records, if the kid had any, they might know his parents or something. That would be a disaster. "Hey I just stole your dead kid's identity. Ya know, cuz I'm from a different universe and needed papers". That would go over well. And if Miller had no parents, Danny had read an article about how orphans around here routinely got thrown into Juvenile Hall.

Not happening.

Danny figured he had time, and could just forget about the schooling conundrum for a bit until he could wrap his head around this strange "Earth 16". Of course, Steve was persistent and kept bringing the whole school and credential thing up until Danny caved and signed up for one of the GED programs from Steve's thick stack of pamphlets he kept dumping on the coffee table.

At least he only had class twice a week this way.

* * *

 **Hey guys, I've been busy. I'm trying to keep on top of this story though. Leave a review, or not, it's nice to hear from you guys though!**

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